The process of manufacturing a liquid crystal panel includes a step of filling a liquid crystal material into a panel. A method for filling the liquid crystal material includes a dipping method and a dispense method. These methods employ a scheme in which a pair of substrates are joined to each other with a sealant interposed; a liquid crystal material is filled through an opening of the sealant by utilizing capillarity and pressure difference; and then, the opening is sealed. In association with upsizing the screens, however, a problem arises that the tact time for filling the liquid crystal material is longer.
As another method of filling the liquid crystal material into the panel, a one drop fill method (it may be called ODF or a drop joining method) has been developed. The one drop fill method is a method in which the liquid crystal material is dropped within a seal pattern frame of which seal pattern has no opening and which is formed on one of the substrates before bonding and the sealant is cured after the pair of substrates are joined to each other under reduced pressure. The one drop fill method can cope with upsizing of the screens and can shorten the tact time for filling the liquid crystal material remarkably.
In one drop fill method, however, an uncured sealant, which is the sealant before being cured, is in contact with the liquid crystal material to invite contamination of the liquid crystal layer with the components of the sealant. This leads to unstable state of liquid crystal orientation, smear, irregularity, flicker, and the like to degrade the display quality of the liquid crystal panel.
A technique for preventing the uncured sealant from being in contact with the liquid crystal material in the one drop fill method is disclosed in Patent Documents 1 and 2. Specifically, they discloses that a seal barrier is provided on the liquid crystal layer side of the sealant to prevent the uncured sealant from being in contact with the liquid crystal material.    Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Application Laid Open Publication No. 2002-350873    Patent Document 2: Japanese Patent Application Laid Open Publication No. 2004-233648